good ole impulse buys.

[peaceypea]

new ten gallon with a pair of convicts, a golden loach, corydora and mystery snail mature media with natural plants and a 10-35g filter

[Goes to 11!]

Some things you should know..

[peaceypea]

i know im planning for baby fishies and aggressive behavior, water is at cichlid parameters, but right now they are focused on each other and not the loach and corycat so unless they show signs of agression ill leave them in there.

[Goes to 11!]

You didn't plan to get an appropriate sized tank? Or, You have one and your not using it. If the first--> Expect some deaths.

[Nephalem]

Just so you have a heads up, we bought some Honduran red points which are basically the same fish as the convicts. They are actually known as blue convicts. We bought them intending to breed, but expected it to take about a month or two of conditioning before our first batch. Foolish of us... This fish needs no stinking month. In one month they had hatched out two batches of fry. The first one about 18 surviving to free swimming, and the second batch about 40 surviving to free swimming. In this time they spent maybe a total of five days together. This is how quick these guys reproduce. Also while spawning they are mean little buggers. You wont have some aggression, you will have constant, unrelenting, psychotic face sucking. They will either harass the other fish to death or kill themselves in the act trying. If you have a male and a female and aren't set on buying multiple large breeder tanks, or having something you can do with a constant supply of fry, I would just cut your losses and separate these fish now. It will save you the worst of the aggression if they aren't together to go into spawning mode and you will actually enjoy them as fish instead of having breeding factories. I believe this is what 8 was getting at. Your setup is no where near the size you need to accommodate a spawning pair of convicts, and the tankmates wont work with them once they have their first nest anyway. Just wanted you to know what to expect.

[mizzoutank]

the positive: tank looks cool

the negative: you will have dead fish within a few months.
you cannot impulse by live animals when you are not ready or understand it.
what you have just done with your fish tank is like buying 2 great danes and putting them in a 500ft sq studio apartment (with no way for them to go outside)

as 850R and Nephalm have pointed out already...you are set up for disaster.

my suggestion: return the fish and do research this time on what is available at your local fish store, come here to this forum and ask what is appropriate for the tank your size.

what is the point in getting fish that won't be happy and will kill themselves or the others? then what, you have wasted your time and money and can't enjoy the tank.

[Cermet]

The issue now is what to do - first off, return the fish you don't want so the ones you do want will live happily and thieve for the tank you have, not the one you would need.

Next, you MUST cycle the filter doing a fish based method unless you return all the fish. This means you read the section on fish based cycling AND buy a liquid test kit that allows you to measure the ammonia, nitrIte, nitrAte, and pH of the water.

This next part is critical. Until then, do 8 gal water changes every other day. Yes, that large and don't skip until you know it is safe.

Know that many (myself included) have done an impluse buy and both the fish and I have lived to tell the story. The key point is not to mix fish that cannot tolerate another species.

Best of luck

[imma24]

There ya go - impulse buys when it comes to fish are usually never a good idea - interesting looking/pretty fish still come with responsibilities attached that humans must learn about 1st prior to purchase.